History :::: LYNDWOOD BANTAM BECOMES A TRUE RUNNER....countdown to HAMB DRAGS:::::

So last i left off, we had gone to Autorama in Detroit and it was a great reception for our little comp coupe digger.


Next stop was NHRR at Bowling Green along with our HOMBRE fuel altered. We just displayed the "Little Honker" in our pit area and had more questions asked and more people interested in it than anything else. I think a lot of "old timers" can relate to the EARLY 60s style cars because it was what the average man could still run on a budget and have FUN...Joe Jacono even came by and talked for a long time ( he ran a very competitive Lyndwood car in the early 60s...if you dont know who the rollin stoned caveman is then go find out)


So back to the task at hand...We assembled the engine for this dragster basically in Mock up Mode... No cam, bare heads, no valvetrain-Just to look pretty and be decieving. With the HAMB drags being our first time really out to the track like it is supposed to be ran, we decided it'd best be time to get the bitch built and running...


The guys at D&D in cincy did the cylinder heads..in the meanwhile, my old man came to cincy from virginia and we knocked the bottom end out of the block...cleaned everything in solvent, checked all the bearings- the usual.

I took the block and cleaned it good, then LIGHTLY ballhoned it to freshen up the bores and get a good cross hatch...







So fresh and so clean clean...



Heres the fresh heads with a brand new set of stainless valves and good springs....





So we polished the crank, set it back in and put one rod and piston in to clay it and check the valve clearance,,,everything was perfect. Put the bottom end back together and torqued everything to spec...





Everyting with this motor was NOS...really really NOS. Like ISKY push rods, springs, and roller tappets still in the original boxes.



And an ISKY hi rev spring and bushing kit, which was a bitch to assemble but DAMN it looks cool...





Got it all sealed up with the valve covers and valley pan on.. now were just waitin for the injector and pump to return from Hilborn and the blower and fuel system is goin together.... Ill keep this updated...

HAMB drags bound, see you all there.








TH

 

Sweet! I can't wait to see it!

 

Beautiful car!!

 

JCP Forever!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

Awesome!!! Looking forward to seeing you and her at the HAMB drags!

 

let's run tha Jet car

 

Got the vertex i sent out to get refurbished by Len Hughes... spot on, as always..

And sorry guys, i have retired from my Jet Car Pilot days..






TH

 

You hoodlum. KILLER! Slim

 

2bolt main? Did i see a 2bolt main block without a girdle on a blown olds? Jeez tyler i don't know about that, seems a little shakey to me. I'm thinking that might be the reason your grandparents set that motor back and went with a hemi. When you finish assemble, you might not want to put a little teenyweenie wheel on that blower, might be counter-productive, a little stressful - if you get my drift.
You guys gonna make the 50th annual at manassas? Love to see you there with the bantam. keep up the good work, oj

 

OJ:

Hey didn't tell you Dad got a New Ring and Pinion, Plus Spool for that bad boy. Even with a In and Out Box, that thing could hookup! Maybe a whole bunch of front wheels way up in the air!

Tyler:

Who gets to make the first pass?

 

That's going to be a nasty motor right there. You guys are always up to no good......I love it!!!

 

Wow wish u could bring her to the Lyndwood reunion AT Pocono Drag lodge, aug 14...maybe next year!!! Sweet job.....keep up the good work

Charlie Hulsizer

 

Tyler:

Who gets to make the first pass?[/QUOTE]


Its debatable at the moment. I've been known not to be the softest push car driver Im used to pushing sprint cars, so maybe that will persuade him to put my ass in the cockpit and his behind the shove vehicle


Got the box of goods back from Don Enriquez at Hilborn today....Top notch company STILL to this day. I gotta put some pics up later tonight of the refurbished injector and all the other speed goodies....






TH

 

Be safe, Tyler.

 

the one with Citroen wheels on it!

 

Cool! i love early speed parts... injectors, pumps, covers, whatever.

They did a KILLER job at Hilborn refurbishing and flowing the injector and pumps....



New throttle shaft and butterflies...









BITCHIN...




You aint shit without a BROWN VERTEX cap.... hell yeah...





Gonna dolly out some stock tin valve covers and put some BIG elbow style breathers in the center tomorrow night...




TH

 

Dammmm I love that car.....I envy you.

 

In spite of the polished finned edelbrock covers that were on the engine, Just couldnt bring ourselves to mill the centers down and drill em for breathers. So now i guess We can have a set of show covers and our "beater" racin covers


I took a set of stock tin valve covers and massaged the centers with a body dolly and pecked em down with a hammer. Hit em with a flap wheel a few times, then painted em this bitchin cast blast color. Had some gnarly big elbow style breathers layin around...







The third member is gettin a big spool set up in it today by a friend of ours that works on a NHRA fuel funny car team..Gonna pick it up tomorow, get the rear and axles back buttoned up and take some pics....






TH

 

Amazing ...... keep posting pictures and updates here.

 

very cool !!

 

WOW!!! That car is KILLER!!! keep up the good work!

 

Well, where did we leave off?

Lets start with last wednesday before the drags. My old man arrived here in cincinnati...Our goal was to get the engine back in the chassis, put the top end on it, get it fired for the FIRST time and a half ass tune up, set the body down and head to MOKAN.

Everything was goin smooth, our friend Bobby Hooker machined a rear crank pilot bushing for the output shaft of the in n out box to line up with as well as a cam spud for the front thrust of the camshaft. Cool, got it all buttoned up


EXPERIMENTAL intake gaskets from Ross Racing Engines..





So we load the car up late wednesday sans body to go to the local fairgrounds and get it fired for the first time...





Arrive at the fairgrounds...were push start only, so we line up the bumper of the shop van and get my old man in it for the first fire up..

 

MINI VAN PUSH CAR....pimp as hell...






CRACK...BANG...POP...fuck.

Go to turn the motor over with a breaker bar with the valve covers off...to check the valve tolerances...180degrees one way, 180 the other-thud. Lock up. Shit.
Take it back to the shop and were in thrash mode. Valvetrain looked and felt good, clutch was good, camshaft thrust was good. Lets drop the pan and take a look...

There it was, a big fuckin pretzeled up chunk of steel that used to be the # 1 connecting rod.



So we get frantic, tear shit apart, throw parts, yell at each other. Took a good look, the rod didnt break just severely warped from hydraulicing,didnt hurt the cylinder wall or the piston. We call up our guy Tony at ROSS RACING up in wayy up northeast ohio..GOATROPER2 here on the HAMB...hes the only guy close enuff to cincy that has any stock 394 oldsmobile rods..

1030 pm wednesday night were northbound 5 hours to pick up a couple rods from him...3 am we arrive in his lot, get em outta his drop box, turn right around and by 7 or 8 am were home. Sleep on the concrete till 9 and were back in the shop...





THRASH MODE...

Put the rod back in, torque the cap, get the heads back on..





We get it all back together, body on, ready to roll to MOKAN the 10 hour trip early friday morning...

 

Dude. You guys put on a helluva' show this weekend. The car looked/sounded amazing! Thanks for bringing it out.

 

Seemed like it was going pretty fast when I was sitting in it at Cobo!

 

We get to Mokan...got our buddy RICHCRAFT MIKE'S deuce roadster with us to push start with....take it over cross from the hotel friday night and try to get it started-same shit. What the hell is up?

Timing. First off, let us start by saying that an OLDSMOBILE firing order is DIFFERENT then a CHEVROLET. We knew better, weve been fucking with olds engines forever. Somewhere in our red bull drink enduced speed haze we wired the cap wrong. That on top of a high compression short block mixed with high octane race fuel=ka boom. I dont wanna hear anyone tell me that steel rods wont work. CAUSE THEY DO. LOOK IN ANY HOT ROD MAGAZINE WITH OLDS POWERED DRAGSTERS. Chances are, they had STOCK steel rods with forged aluminum pistons like us, or boxed steel rods from Don's boxing service. If you had $ and a hook up, you got aluminum rods.

That being said-

http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/showthread.php?p=5574815#post5574815

We were thrashin in the Mokan heat tryin to get it lit off. Were still draggin ass from no sleep for two or three days, the timings still a bit off, valvetrain goof ups...blah blah blah this is a race car if it was easy everyone would do it. I like having hot 50 weight green racing oil dripping in my eyes i do.The roadster was givin us trouble so we needed a push truck. Nick (Malcolm here on the HAMB) comes over and is generous as hell. Use my truck, but im sittin in the front seat! haha. Bitchin guy and his friends, he let me drive his truck, and low and behold the bitch started!



DAMN that gas motor has got some bang to it.

Go back , run the valves, change the oil. Clear it with the Mokan guys, we got the green light to do what we want. Killer.







My old man in his dad BIG JOHN's firesuit...them are "no sleep till we make second round" eyes...





Yes, I know burnouts were not done with a dragster in the early 60s, hell they didnt start doin short squirts till about '68, but we had to make a little smoke. We line up at the return road, push up the track, i park the truck behind the line and get out to check the idle screws and feel some head temp, doing my best Wes Cerny impression, and the old man lets it loose.

THIS IS 1962 BOYS. THIS IS HOW IT WAS DONE. NO MINI STARTERS, NO RADIATORS AND ELECTRIC FANS, NO GODAMN STUDDERBOX TRANNY BRAKE THINGIES, NO BULLSHIT. PERIOD.





Since it was the First run ever, he slid the clutch hard to keep the motor up. Didnt wanna two step it and half the disc blow all the lining off at the start. About 600 ft the clutch finally caught up with the motor and he said it was PULLING HARD. thats when he clicked it off. First instinct was to kill the bitch, grab for the chutes and get a big handful of brake.My old man has driven top fuel cars and fuel funny cars since he was 18, he knows better then me.

We were fuckin pumped!!

Old man, Me, and our buddy Randy in the white shirt from Cincy who always comes along for the ride...

 

So with all that being done, we are satisfied. The engine is STOUT. It needs a good counterweighted clutch so it will lock up and smoke the hides, and this winter hopefully a good full balanced rotating assembly..maybe some Aluminum rods too...

THANKS to my uncle Mike and the rest of the crew in Cincy at our shop..the MOKAN Crew for letting us do this without bringing the allmighty hand of the tech inspection god down upon us..Ryan for putting on this killer event...Malcolm here on the HAMB for gettin some killer flix and vid and helpin us along at the track...

Cruisin up the return road at the end of the day in mike's roadster..



Mokan starting line at the end of the day





We're gonna be making some match race appearances in the fall...stay tuned...





TH

 

looks great sometimes you gotta fight the bitch before you love the bitch! Glad you got if fired up, See ya soon Ryan

 

Thanks for making the extra effort to get the car to MoKan.
Saw it in Bowling Green,but this is what I was waiting for, seeing it going down the track as they should be.

Tim

 

Awesome... What a great time!!